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by Professor Jon M. Van Dyke University of Hawaii NIl~~:=:~ MARrTlME INSTITUTE OF MAlAYSIA INSTITUT MARITIM MALAYSIA .:n: .:r=.e- 1 - 2 All· gus t es;== ~~~ Prince Hotel And Residence, Kuala Lumpur University of Hawaii School of Law Library - Jon Van Dyke Archives Collection Fifth MIMA Conference on the Straits .of Malacca: Present and Filture Perspectives Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia August 1-2, 2006 Transit Passage Through International Straits Jon M. Van Dyke William S. Richardson School of Law University of Hawai'i at Manoa [email protected] The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea Ii 974-1982).1 The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea began in 1974 in Caracas,' Venezuela, amid great fanfare and high expectations. The delegations gathered to negotiate a comprehensive treaty that would clarify and bring certainty to the many ocean issues that had divided nations over the years. Eight years later, after long negotiating, sessions that, alternated between New York and Geneva, the Law of the Sea Convention was completed, and on December 10, 1982, 119 nations signed the document in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The Convention came into force in July 1994 after a sufficient number of countries had formally ratified the treaty.2 . I ' One of the central disputes among the countries negotiating this treaty concerned the width of the territorial sea, coastal state control of its adj acent --1· A few sections of this paper are adaptedfromJon M. VanDyke, Legal and Practical Problems-Governing International·· Straits, in OCEAN YEARBOOK 12 at 109 (Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Norton Ginsburg, and Joseph R. Morgan' eds. 1996), also published in THE STRAITS OF MALACCA: INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN TRADE, FUNDING & NAVIGATIONAL SAFETY (Maritime Institute of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk Publications, Hamzah Allmad ed., 1997) [hereafter cited as STRAITS OF MALACCA]; and from Jon M. Van Dyke, The Legal Regime Governing the Gibraltar Straits, in THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM ON niB STRAITS USED FOR INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION 72 (Bayram Ozturk & Resat Ozkan eds., Turkish Marine Research Foundation, Istanbul, Nov. 16-17, 2002) [hereafter cited AS I~TANBUL STRAITS SYMPOSIUM]' 2 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, UN Doc AlConf.621122 (1982), reprinted in 21 International Legal Materials 1261 (1982). 1 University of Hawaii School of Law Library - Jon Van Dyke Archives Collection offshore resources, and the navigational rights of commercial and military vessels to pass through straits and island archipelagoes.3 The United States and other maritime powers initially re:;;isted efforts to allow coastal countries to claim extended fisheries zones, because they were concerned that such a zone could limit navigational freedoms. The United States was particularly concerned about its continuing ability to navigate its warships, including submerged submarines, through key international straits such as the Strait of Gibralter (into the Mediterranean Sea), the Strait of Hormuz' (into the Persiap./ Arabian Gulf), the Strait of Bab e1 Mandeb (into the Red Sea), the Strait of Malacca (connecting the Indian Ocean with the Pacific), the Dover Strait (through the English Channel), the Bering Strait (in the Arctic), and" the Strait of Lombok (through the Indonesian archipelago). The United States was worried that if countries were allowed to extend their territorial seas from three to twelve nautical miles, no high-seas corridors would remain in these narrow straits, and control over passage might arguably fall under the control of the countries bordering. on these key waterways. The United States maintained that free movement through these straits was . essential to its national security, and protested claims of expanding territorial seas.4 The U.S. position on navigational freedoms was supported during this period by the Soviet Union, which was also a major maritime power. Opposing the position of the maritime countries was a group of strait states that,included Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain, the Philippines, Cyprus, Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen.' Spain and Malaysia argued that oil tankers presented serious pollution dangers to coastal countries,s and Malaysia argued that the passage of oil tankers' should be viewed as "non-innocent," and that. coastal countries should be allowed 3 Se,e g(m~~qlly S~ty~N, N'1l14~1l~, Pa:vicl H· f\.nder~()n,_ Str[jits l/s€)cifo!J'!.te.r.na,Jlo!laINayigatio,!:: A C; orrllrlen/[jryonPart ., III ofthe United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea 1982,1989 BRITISH YEARBoOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 159-204 (1990). 4 George Galdorisi, The United States and the Law of the Sea: Decade of Decision in 1HE UNITED STATES AND THE 1982 LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION: 1HE CASES PRO AND CON 7, 16-17 ( George Galdorisi, Doug Bandow, and M. Casey Jarman cds., Law of the Sea Institute Occasional Paper No.' 38, 1994). , 52 UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF LEGAL AFFAIRS, DIVISION FOR OCEAN AFFAIRS AND THE LAW OF THE SEA, 1HE LAW OF THE SEA: STRAITS USED FOR INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION: LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF PAin III OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA 30 (New York: United Nations, 1992) [hereafter cited as STRAITS LEGISLATIVE HISTORY]. 2 University of Hawaii School of Law Library - Jon Van Dyke Archives Collection to regulate their passage.6 Draft articles were submitted by Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, and Yemen that proposed a regime of innocent passage for travel through straits and would have required warships to seek authorization for coastal states prior to exercising innocent passage through territorial seas in stralts.7 These proposals were rejected by the maritime powers and also failed to receive the support of many other coastal states.S The compromise that, emerged during the p~otracted negotiations consisted of (A) allowing coastal states to extend their' territorial seas to 12 'nautical miles, (B) recognizing the right to transit passage through international straits, and (C) allowing countries to establish an "exclusive economic zone" (EEZ) out to a distance of 200 nautical miles from its coast, governed by Part V of the Convention, Articles 55-75. The right of "transit passage through international straits" as defined in the Convention is nonsuspendable and applies to all vessels - military and commercial -- and also to airplanes (Article 38(1)). Pursuant to the language in Article 39(1)C), submarines are allowed to remain submerged when they exercise this right of transit passage.9 The position of the maritime countries that all ships should have tl;te right to unimpeded passage through international straits was thus largely adopted in Part III (Articles 34-45) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Each str:ait, however, presents unique geographical and practical considerations, and some straits have historically been governed by unique legal regimes, which remain in force pursuant to Article 35 (c) of the Convention. Professor Lewis M. Alexander, who served as The Geographer for the U.S. State Department during the 1980s, has identified 265 important straits around the globe,lo but the number 6 Id. at 36 (statement by Lal Vohrah, Aug. 12, 1971, Doc. AfACJ38/SC.II1SR.11). 7 Erik Francia & Ahmad. Razavi, The Strait of Hormuz, in ISTANBUL STRAITS SYMPOSIUM, supra note 1, at 53, 58 (citing UNCLOS III, Official Records, vol. III, at 129,'Doc. ICONF.62/C.2/L.16). 8Id. 9 Satya N. Nandan, Legal Regime for Straits Used for International Navigation, in INTERNATIONAL STRAITS SYMPOSIUM, supra note 1, at 7 ("The common practice of submarines transiting some international straits while submerged is recognised in the provision that passing vessels refrain from any activities other than those' incident to their normal mode of continuous and expeditious transit' (art. 39(1)( c))). 10 LEWIS M. ALEXANDER, NAVIGATIONAL RESTRICTIONS WITHIN THE NEW LOS CONTEXT: GEOGRAPHICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR 3 University of Hawaii School of Law Library - Jon Van Dyke Archives Collection would be much higher if every narrow waterway between bodies of land were counted. The specific rules that apply to individual straits are discussed in more detail below. The· Corfu Channel Case. The right to pass freely through international straits was not firmly established until the Corfu Channel Casell in 1949, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) s~d that ships have the right of nonsuspendable innocent passage through such straits. In 1946, the United Kin'gdom sent four warships through the Corfu Channel, which separates the Greek island of Corfu and the Albanian coast. , Several of the vessels were seriously, , damaged by mines in the channel, and a number of British sailors were killed. Albania argued that the channel was not a necessary route between two parts of the higl?- seas and therefore that no right of passage existed. Albania explained that this waterway was "only of secondary importance and not even a necessary route between two parts of the high seas, and that it is used almost exclusively for local t~affic to and f~om the ports of Corfu and Saranda."l2 The International Court of Justice agreed fhat it was not a necessary route, but said that "it has nevertheless been a useful route for int,ernational maritime traffic."l3 The decisive criteria is simply "its geographical situation as connecting two parts of the high seas and the fact .of it~ being used for international navigat~on" and hence that ~'the North Corfu Channel should be considered as belonging to the class of international highways through which passage cannot be prohibited by a coastal State in time of peace."l4 As long as the passage through the waterway is innocent, passage of warships is permissible and the coastal state' cannot require prior authorization: .. THE UNITED STATES 99 and at 188-98, Table 12-A. (PeaceDale,-Rhodelsland:Offshoreeonsultants, 1986).·· ·11 Corfit Channel Case (U.K.